Almost Lunch Time

Doing these festival shows can be so strange and insane. Don't get me wrong. I'm completely and utterly a fan...but I am also incredibly grateful that I just spent the past year doing four week workshops on two to three hour plays for one perfomance.

That's sort of how doing a show at one of these grand-scale theatre festivals feels like, but it's even more extreme. The production is bigger, more people get involved, there is excitement and press...and then it all ends after six short shows. That's not even the insane part though. The insane part is that you have only two to three weeks to rehearse.

"Lunch" is going well. There are a few frustrations I have at the moment...but no one is really to blame for them. I play a character that fronts a band...and right now I have no band. I have a piano that really takes away all the flavor from Shawn Northrips wonderful little punk/rock score, and I won't actually get my band until opening day due to the fact that they are all in DC. That scares the shit out of me. Oh well, I guess it will be exciting. It will be a new experience for the audience...AND for me. (I've been promised a little rehearsal time before the curtain is actually raised)

There are so many things to love about this experience though. First of all, it's original work. Second of all, It's good original work. Third of all, there are good people attatched to this project. And by good people, I mean good people. From the director, to the composer/writer, to the incredibly warm-hearted cast, there is such a naturally GOOD energy surrounding this group of people. I sound like some crazy hippie shouting out "your ora is amazing!" But I mean it. I really enjoy being around my cast. Everyone is extremely supportive and I have never felt more instantly comfortable with any other group of actors.

I just read my name in a playbill article for the second time. Yeah, there was no picture...no epic story of my life...but it's crazy to think that I've already been able to achieve that in the 4 short months I've been here. I am proud of what I've accomplished here but I do run into a lot of skeptics. I look at these wonderful little shows as a creative, constructive, and respectable way to get my foot into the door. Of course I don't consider them the height of my career...but I am incredibly proud to be apart of them. I know that a lot of my college-aged friends (of the few that I actually have) think I'm crazy and think I've stupidly turned down massive opportunities like CCM and CMU. And I know that alot of the older actors that I have recently worked with can't even begin to understand why a 19 year old would want to be doing anything BUT drinking beer in his dorm room...but I think I am going after big opportunities. And I also feel like I'm taking more time with things than some of my college friends. I figure I'm young, so why not try to utilize that? Why do we all have to follow the same basic structure of life (highschool, college, grad school)? How boring is that?

Ah well, I guess I'll have to live with the fact that people aren't exactly going to "get" me for a while. At least not when they first meet me. (Why the hell isn't this kid in school? Jesus is he 15...16?) No, but I can play 15! AND I look the part. Haha.